VOL. XV. (2) RUDE STONE MONUMENTS OF INDIA I4I 
them, may have erected these circles, no one at present 
can Say. 
One modern development of the circle, or possibly the 
utilisation of ancient monuments to serve a comparatively 
modern cuétus, is seen in the Vetala circles of the Deccan. 
He is a demon lord, who twice a month at midnight, 
at full moon and no moon, wanders through the country 
like the Demon host of Teutonic mythology.* Lucky is 
the man who has the courage to address the demon, and 
crave a boon from him. The Vetala circle, of which there 
is a famous example on the Parvati Hill, near Poona, 
consists of a central stone, which is the god’s house, and 
where offerings are made, and a circle of stones, each 
of which represents one of the host of goblins and deified 
Spirits who act as guards to the demon.’ 
This last statement is particularly interesting when 
compared with the story which Aristotle tells of the 
Iberians,? that they used to place around the tomb of 
a dead warrior as many obelisks as he had killed enemies. 
We are reminded of the tales told of so many of our 
British standing stones, that they are petrified warriors, — 
girls who danced on a Sunday, and so on. The Todas 
have a famous circle which they say consists of petrified 
soldiers, who insulted a priest: the angry ecclesiastic 
threw milk on them and turned them all to stone.4 
In this view these lines of standing stones represent 
erections in which it is supposed the spirit of the 
departed takes refuge. This, I need hardly remind you, 
was the principle on which the most primitive form 
of altar was erected. We thus see why rude, uncarved 
stone was chosen for the early Hebrew Altar, as it was for 
the menhir, because the carving by the hand of man would 
1 Grimm, “ Teutonic Mythology,” tr. Stallybrass, iii., 915 ff. 
2 “ Bombay Gazetteer,” xviii., part iii, 388. 
3 Windle, “ Life in Early Britain,” p. 54. 
4 Breeks, Op. czt., p. 36. 
